The problem was created by the EU and the United States and they should take decisions, Russia’s Permanent Representative at the EU Vladimir Chizhov says

MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/. Russia will not bargain with the European Union over sanctions as they are Brussels’ problem, Russia’s Permanent Representative at the EU Vladimir Chizhov said aired by the Russian Rossiya 24 television on Friday.

"I will not make predictions what decisions the EU summit will take. Options are possible and ‘a creative attitude’ may reveal itself," Chizhov said. "There are various precedents, for instance sanctions against Minsk. First, the EU waited for outcome of the [presidential] elections in Belarus and then the sanctions were extended and simultaneously the deadline to freeze them was extended as well."

"We will not get into discussions [over sanctions] and we will not bargain over them as the problem was created by the EU and the United States and they should take decisions," he said.

"It has become a well-known fact that [the EU] is in turmoil. It is not by chance that US Vice-President Joseph Biden as an ideologue was calling to [European Commission President] Jean-Claude Juncker to Brussels, saying the sanctions need to be extended under all circumstances and that [the EU] should be ready for further restrictions. Then followed an enormous lengthy press release from Washington, which was answered with silence in Brussels," the Russian envoy said.